2 - 8 May 2002
Issue No.584
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 2 - 8 May 2002 Issue No.584 |
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Ansar III; Auschwitz II?
What human rights? Michael Jansen, in Ramallah, takes stock of a descent to barbarism
Abdullah, 17, and Bassam, 60, share the terrible experience of being snatched up by the Israeli army, held in harsh conditions for several days and dumped. Abdullah is a lad from a village near Ramallah. He was arrested at his place of work and held at the Ofra-Batil Israeli military camp where his money and mobile phone were taken.
Israel detained more than 5,000 Palestinians in its ongoing campaign in the occupied territories. The detainees were mistreated and held in inhumane conditions (photo: AFP)
After stamping his arm with an indelible ink tattoo of triangles to show he had been processed, Abdullah was released in Ramallah. There he stayed in buildings under construction without food until he was found and taken in by friends of mine. Bassam, from the Jenin refugee camp, was imprisoned for six days at the Salem military base near Megiddo on the coast and then set free near the hill village of Taibeh where he sheltered in the secondary school with another 40 men until Israel withdrew its forces from the camp.
In this group were several deeply traumatised men who had been used as "human shields" by Israeli soldiers when they conducted house-to-house searches of the camp. I also met three young policemen from Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip who could neither stay on at the school nor go home.
The Palestinian human rights advocacy group, Al-Haq, reports that the Ofra-Batil detention area (where the military courts are located) is divided into four sections, each housing 250 men in tents.
Although designed for 20, each tent holds twice that number. Prisoners are provided with boards on which to sleep but not mattresses. During the first cold, wet days of their detention two men shared a blanket.
Food is inadequate, access to toilets restricted, medical treatment denied. Beatings and abuse are said to be common. Conditions are similar at Salem and other holding facilities. Al-Haq contends that such conditions are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states that prisoners should be accommodated in facilities which safeguard health and provide protection "against the rigours of the climate."
On 5 April, Al-Haq and two Israeli groups, Hamoked and B'tselem lodged a case with the Israeli High Court alleging that detainees at Ofra have had their fingers, toes and other bones broken during interrogation. Prisoners, aged from 13 to 70, have their wrists bound for long periods with plastic cuffs and their identity papers confiscated, making it difficult and dangerous to travel if and when they are freed.
Abdullah, Bassam and the temporary inmates at the Taibeh School are amongst the lucky ones. For they are free in the besieged Palestinian enclaves of the West Bank. Unfortunate are the hundreds given administrative detention (held without trial or charges) and kept in prison.
On 10 April, unscheduled hearings were conducted by a judge and a security (Shabak) officer and periods of administrative detention served to prisoners who had no access to counsel and were promptly transferred to the Ketziot desert prison in the Negev Desert, marking the reopening of the facility which held 5,000-6,000 Palestinians during the first Intifada, 1987-93.
Israel claims that it has detained 4,250-5,000 in the current ongoing campaign, 150 of whom are said to be "wanted men" and 35 alleged authors of attacks on Israelis.
According to international law, it is illegal to transport detainees to facilities outside of their home territory. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel has submitted a petition to the High Court calling for the prison to be shut down once again six years after it was closed on the grounds that Ketziot falls far below standards set by the UN.
By the end of the month, at least 500 Palestinians had been transferred to this prison. Allegra Pacheco, an Israeli human rights lawyer who visited a client on 21 April, testified that men sleep on wooden planks. They have only two blankets even though the temperature falls to below zero at night. Food is rationed: one tomato is shared between four, a pot of yoghurt between eight. Detainees are not allowed to move out of the tents.
Her client, Abed Ahmara, a human rights case worker who has been under administrative detention for 11 months, lost eight kilos in two weeks. Pacheco described him as looking "very ill." Lawyers who visited the facility on 23 April confirmed her findings to Amira Hass and Moshe Reinfeld (Ha'aretz, 26 April). They revealed that Ketziot is divided into sections, each containing three tents holding 20 persons. A 25- watt bulb illuminates the tents. Each section contains an open latrine with hose for washing.
Insects are a major problem. Food is in short supply and is causing digestive disorders. Prisoners have no soap and no change of clothing. They are not permitted to contact their families.
The camp, a barbed wire compound with watchtowers, is located 60 kilometres southwest of Beersheeba, near the Egyptian frontier. Palestinians called it "Ansar III", the notorious Ansar I was located at Khiam in south Lebanon and Ansar II in the Gaza Strip.
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